A Republican House member says Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala is exaggerating when she says 40 percent of all AIDS cases have been reported in the past two years.
Shalala cited the statistic in testimony Wednesday before a House Appropriations subcommittee as she presented 1996 administration budget proposals.She said roughly 40 percent of the 440,000 AIDS cases reported since 1981 were in 1993 and 1994 and that AIDS is now the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 25 and 44.
Rep. Ernest J. Istook, R-Okla., complained that the statistic was meaningless and misleading since most of the large increase was due to a change in definition - effective at the start of 1993 - of what qualified as an AIDS case.
He cited a newsletter published last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which said a large increase in cases in 1993 and 1994 reflected the addition of cases that previously had not been eligible for counting.
"Tell me why your testimony doesn't tell us the true facts," Istook said at one point.
Shalala, who appeared flustered throughout the questioning, said she had tried to be clear in her testimony but that, whatever the numbers, the issue was the same.
"There's no intent here to mislead about the importance of our investment in AIDS and what's happening in this country in terms of the impact of AIDS, on the federal budget, on the health costs of AIDS to our country," she said.
Istook told Shalala he would like to see all recent HHS releases on AIDS to make sure the agency wasn't misrepresenting the facts.